Bill and Ted 3: Trailer Review

The year is 2020, and Hollywood seems to have completely forgotten how to write an original movie. The days of creating new worlds, new characters, new themes and new plots are now over. We are living in an age of prequels, sequels, and reboots.

And the latest victim of the trend is the classic "Bill and Ted". I've seen the trailer, and I'm not impressed, here's why I think this isn't going to be a very good film, based on the trailer.

Before we get into the problem with the new film, let's talk about why the older ones were so good.

Of course, the film was hilarious, watching two guys who were clueless about life and the world harnessed the power of time travel and met some amazing people on the way.

But it was so much more than just funny, it was about friendship, youth, morals, destiny.

The original film came out over 10 years ago now. And it seems like a similar amount of time has passed in their universe too.

Are you the same person you were 10 years ago?

In the trailer, it seems like Bill and Ted are both the same people that they used to be when they were teenagers. They're still the stupid, ignorant, idiots that they used to be. It seems that reflecting on their past, committing themselves to their music, and starting a family has had no effect on them whatsoever.

It's impossible to tell exactly who this movie is for. It's littered with references to the original film, making you think it's for fans of the originals. However, it also contains slapstick and childish humour that would make you think it's for a younger generation.

This film doesn't seem to realise that it's audience has grown up, and the new generation won't understand a lot of the references.

This film attempts to be both a comedy and a horror at the same time. This is a huge risk to take. Comedy is all about releasing tension, whereas horror is about building up tension.

In the sequel, Bill and Ted's Bogus Journey, they did use some rather dark themes such as Hell and Death. However, these were always played for laughs, and the film never tried to be a horror, it was a comedy.

In the new trailer however, there appears to be some sort of attempt to make it seem scary whilst also being funny.

And the type of comedy they use is quite simply just childish.

Slapstick.

The cheapest, stupidest, and most dumbed-down version of comedy there is. An over-reliance on slapstick just shows a lack of creativity and knowledge of how to construct comedy.

Having said all that, so far, it's only the trailer that has come out. So at the moment, there is a tiny glimmer of hope that actually, it's going to be a great film, it's just the trailer not doing it much justice.